Next Xbox requires internet connection, blocks used games - rumour

Games designed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 successor “will require an internet connection in order to function”, according to a report in the new issue of Edge magazine.

Sources said to have first-hand experience of Microsoft’s next generation console told the magazine that all disc-based games will include online activation codes, making “a new iteration of Xbox Live” designed for the system an “integral rather than optional feature”.

These codes will have no value beyond their initial use, effectively eliminating the used games market. Software will be available digitally or in physical form on 50GB-capacity Blu-ray discs, the report claims.

Edge was also told by an independent source that recently leaked specifications for Microsoft’s upcoming console are entirely accurate, and that a new, more reliably responsive Kinect will ship alongside the system.